Wednesday Weekly Wrecruiting Wrap

There are a few people who read this blog who aren't real familiar with the recruiting cycle, so I'm going to briefly walkthrough this. If you already know how the actual process of recruiting works, skip ahead a bit, if not I'll keep it brief.

Our example class is the class of 2012 and their timeline goes like this.

• Unofficial interest by a school can begin at anytime. Barry Sanders Jr. was receiving recruiting attention as early as the eighth grade.
• Throughout high school beginning at any time, students can attend summer camps put on by college football staffs.
• Unofficial offers can be made at anytime, typically no earlier than after sophmore year, even for the most talented prospects.
• Official written offers can go out September 1st of the prospects junior year. For the class of 2012, this was 9/1/2010.
• A prospect can "commit" anytime after receiving one of these written offers.The commitment must be accepted by the staff after being offered by the prospect. However the commitment is not binding by either party until National Signing Day. 
• An official visit is the one time a school is allowed to fly the prospect and the prospect's family into town to visit the campus. The number of official visits is limited for a school to I believe 56. Typically, regional prospects commit to a school and then take an official visit later. National recruits or VERY highly rated recruits use the Official Visits to make their decision. For the MSU staff, official visits almost always occur after the season prior to National Signing Day. For the 2012 class, this is the period between the Big Ten Title Game and February 1, 2012.
• National Signing Day is the first Wednesday in February. Commits receive a National Letter of Intent which they then sign and fax(LOL) back to the football offices.
• A commit can enroll early. This means they begin classes the Winter prior to the year their class. For example in the 2012 class, Ezra Robinson and DeAnthony Arnett(transfer) have begun classes, but will not see the field until 2012.

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Early Defections & Scholarship Count

With Edwin Baker and Jerel Worthy announcing their departure and Johnny Adams announcing he'll be back for his senior year, I think MSU is done with dealing with early defections for this year's recruiting cycle. Anyone looking to transfer probably would have done so by now.

Currently, MSU has 14 commitments for the 2012 class, I won't be counting Arnett because he is technically a transfer. I think they're looking to take 17 in this class. A team can have 85 scholarship players, unless they're Ohio State for the next couple of years. ZING! 17 is actually the ideal number of players to take in a class because if they all redshirt then you have 17 kids coming in all five years to total your 85 scholarships. Blame JLS for lots of things failure-oriented, this was a trend he started at MSU we should be grateful for.

Official Visits Lined Up For This Weekend

JP Holtz - Holtz was on my wish list I made a few weeks ago because he is another one of those 6'6", 240 lbs DE/TE types that schools like MSU, Iowa and Wisconsin love to stockpile. These kinds of athletes can play TE/DE/DT/OT/OG at the next level. They get brought in and find a position over the first couple years. Previously committed to Pitt, but with offers from Michigan, Arkansas and Penn State, Holtz is a guy you should be excited about if he comes to play at MSU.

Addressing the Other Positions of Need

WR - Seems deep in this class, but it is not deep overall in 2012. Monty Madaris is a player who seems close to making a decision and would fit the MSU offense very nicely. Coupled with our WR commit from over the summer, Kyle Kerrick both excel at WR and Safety. If Madaris commits to MSU expect him to go to WR and Kerrick to Safety.

DT- With the departure of Worthy, MSU is looking to find a big-bodied DT for 2012. I'm frankly skeptical that there is anyone on the radar that fits the bill of a 6'3", 300 Worthy Replacement. Maybe if there's a late decommitment?

OL - We could always use more OL, but again, I'm not seeing anyone who jumps out at me as a likely-to-have player at MSU.

Best Guess On Finishing Out The Class

TE - JP Holtz, WR - Monty Madaris, OL/DL to be named later.

MSU: The Week In Review

So um, kind of a lot happened this week in MSU football. In case you have forgotten, MSU won it's first bowl game under Mark Dantonio. It helps when MSU isn't playing the top QB in the NFL draft, with a lost WR corps or four first round defensive draft picks from Alabama. Still, the Spartans needed a monster defensive game, some excellent special teams play and even a bit of luck to cut the cake against Georgia. Georgia is a very good and very young team, and I'd like to avoid playing the 2012 and maybe even the 2013 version of this team.

I said in the postgame write-up and will reiterate here, this game was MSU's season in a nutshell. You had the "road game blues" where the offense couldn't do anything, you had the "Spartan Domination" on offense in the 3rd and 4th quarter, where MSU scored 27 points in the second half to turn the corner. Special teams played well when it counted and the defense, oh, the defense. Thank you. This season wouldn't have been possible without our amazing defense.

I'll be rewatching this game over the weekend and with the help of Ty doing a bit of film review. That should be fun for next week.

Badgerfreude and a tiny bit about Basketball

MSU notched it's first victory at the Kohl's Center since 2001 on Tuesday night. The Badgers had their clocks out of sync and the scoreboard clock expired before the stadium clock. The refs reviewed and decided the Wisconsin player had not gotten the shot off in time. Bo Ryan summoned his rage. He called the refs falcons. He ranted "Falcon, you falconing Mister Falcons!"

Bielema can't tell time. I've decided this is the only way the clock management of a Big Ten Head Coach could be so poor. He called a timeout on 1st and 10 in the third quarter. A timeout that would have been useful with :02 seconds to go in the Rose Bowl when you'll have a shot at the end zone from the 28. Honest to goodness, he really needs to work on this in the offseason.

Perhaps, and this is just me spitballing, they wrote a clause into his Rose Bowl bonus where the bonus is only activated if he runs the shot clock at the following night's men's hoops game. You know, for funsies. All of this clock mismanagement couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys.

DeAnthony Arnett

DeAnthony Arnett received his release from Tennessee and will transfer to Michigan State University. Between Arnett and 2012 WR commit Aaron Burbridge, this marks the second year in a row MSU will have the top WR commit in the midwest committed to play for the green and white. I'm currently projecting Arnett as a slot receiver and the heir apparent to Keshawn Martin at the position. Whether he will run all of the fancified trick plays is a different discussion altogether. This is a huge pickup for the Spartans and can only help Maxwell's transition into Cousins job next year.

Jerel Worthy

Worthy announced his plans to forgo his senior season and declare for the NFL draft. Worthy is a projected first rounder and it would be a gamble for him to pass up that kind of money. There are a host of potential DTs ready to step into his place, but his impact will be sorely missed next year. Players leaving early for the NFL is a great thing for Michigan State. Be happy for him. His mom Stephanie made it quite clear Jerel will finish his degree or else... A great situation all around.

Pat Narduzzi

Pat Narduzzi has interviewed for the DC position at Texas A&M and will be offered the job at a rate of pay between 600 - 750k. As I said yesterday, this is not a positive thing for MSU. Coaches leaving for Head Coaching jobs is a great thing, coaches leaving for lateral promotions is not. The fan reactions have ranged from fury to apathy to congratulations. No decision has yet been reached on the part of Narduzzi nor has an apparent public counter-offer been made by Michigan State.

I suspect this will be over by the end of the weekend, maybe even Friday. If MSU loses Narduzzi, expect some upset fans. I just hope these same fans don't complain when ticket prices go up to support the coaching staff in the future. If MSU keeps Narduzzi, it'll probably only be for a couple years until he finds a quality head coaching gig.

Bonus Conspiracy Theory

Narduzzi was "scheduled" to receive a raise to 305k per Hondo in February. Narduzzi withdrew his name from consideration for the Akron gig. Treadwell is making 450 or so at Miami-OH, so one would expect that Akron would be shopping in that price range too. To me this all adds up to the reported 305k actually being higher than that. 2/3rds of a potential salary doesn't seem low enough to cause Narduzzi to say no.

In Review

That Outback Bowl feels like it was a LONG time ago now. MSU had some of it's biggest successes of the Dantonio era and was immediately forced to begin defending it's newfound success. The choices made regarding Narduzzi will help demonstrate how committed MSU is to paying the money necessary to retain an excellent coaching staff. It's a game of inches as Dantonio always says, and MSU needs to win the next couple days to help secure more of these first world problems for 2012.

Here's Your Shield: DeAnthony Arnett

Here's Your Shield can be used for transfers too. AMIRITE?

Last night DeAnthony Arnett announced his transfer to Michigan State. He was rumored to have picked between MSU, UM and ND. Some of the other fans are saying he didn't have a (insert sour grapes school) offer, all schools have fans that roll with sour grapes. Arnett may be eligible to play in 2012 if he is granted a hardship waiver on account of his father's illness, if not he will begin playing football in 2013 for MSU as a redshirt freshman. The health issues of Arnett are such that the hardship waiver should be a lock, but you know, this is the NCAA.

Arnett initially selected Tennessee over an Offer Redeemable At Any School in The United States. At the time he selected UT over MSU, USC and Cal. So... when he thinks to move home to be closer to his sick dad, I'm pretty sure USC and Cal don't really help with that. Arnett said several times during his recruitment he wanted to play in a pro-style offense, so the resurgence of Michigan coupled with the claim of reverting back to the pro-style offense made me a bit anxious he'd be wearing blue. However, the difference between Borges and Calvin McGee was much smaller than the difference between Roushar and Borges this year.


Arnett beats a Buffalo Linebacker to the edge.


Nice catch of a ball behind Arnett around the 3:05 mark.

In 2011, Arnett had 24 catches for 242 yards and 2 TDs. He had receptions in seven of 12 games despite playing in all 12. With UT averaging 242 yards in the passing game, I don't know that I'd read a whole lot into it one way or the other. UT's offense was a tire fire finishing 106th in total scoring offense, 104th in total yardage offense and 50th in passing yardage offense. So while this isn't a case of Sammy Watkins coming to MSU, I think he could very well live up to his pre-UT billing.

Arnett is listed at 6'1" and 175 although if he is bigger than 5'11" and 160 I'd be surprised. If you look at him and Keshawn (6'0 and 180), they simply do not look the same. Which is a nice segue into the role Arnett will play. Arnett will be playing the role of 2012 Keshawn Martin. Since Arnett has been a WR all along, I think you will see less of the issues Martin had growing into the position of slot WR his freshman and sophmore years, but he might be absent some of Keshawn's knack for making magical plays.

What Will His Impact Be On The WR Group?

Arnett is another talented but largely unproven commodity for the 2012 Michigan State WR corps. He's seen more gametime than anyone who will be starting in 2012 save perhaps Bennie Fowler. At his size, I worry a bit about durability. He has the shake and bake to shake any corner in single coverage, but I don't know if he has the deep speed to stretch the field on every play. In short, I think he'll be an excellent replacement for Martin in the slot and we're lucky to have him.